Does Win7 filter/delay outgoing web requests

I know that title sounds strange - maybe stupid. But ... I'm having a weird problem with my Win7 machine. With TweetDeck and/or Firefox 5 if I click on a link shortened by bit.ly or if I go directly to the bit.ly webpage it takes 90 seconds (timed) for the page to open. However any other page, and shortened URLs by other service open quickly and normally.

To make it stranger ... if I run TweetDeck and or Firefox 5 (same editions of both programs on both computers) on an XP machine all bit.ly shortened links connect through in "normal" time. No delays.

I have disabled all except very basic add ons to FireFox ... no help.

I have written to bit.ly tech support ... they're trying to "duplicate" the problem there. So far no answers.

Beginning with Vista and carrying forward to Windows 7 even though your account is a member of the administrator group it does not have the same privileges as the builtin Administrator account. This is a change from XP.

Try starting the program you are using to edit the hosts file with "Run as adminstrator".